Speaking of school children, is anyone familiar with this custom?

Today an age forty somethingish African American woman in my office had on a green sweater. She saw me with my black pants & gray sweater on and said "It's St. Patrick's day and you don't have on any green?! Watch out or you'll get a pinch."

When she saw that I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, she explained to me that when she was in school in Houston, Texas, kids who didn't wear anything green on St. Patrick day would be pinched on their arm by other kids througout the whole school day. One thing those kids would do to avoid getting pinched was to go get a leaf from a tree and pin it on their shirt or blouse so they wouldn't be pinched. I guess then they could pinch other children who didn't have on anything green. But she didn't say that. BTW, her school was all Black.

After I heard about this, I did an informal survey of other folks {both Black and non-Black} in my work place. No one else had ever heard of that custom. Maybe it's a Southern USA thing.

Anybody else heard of kids pinching other kids who don't wear green for St. Patrick's day?